Biographical Note
The Lomax family has a long history of collaboration with the Library of Congress. John A. Lomax, Sr., began a ten-year relationship with the Library in 1933, when he set out with his son Alan, then eighteen, on their first folksong gathering expedition under the Library's auspices. Together they visited Texas farms, prisons, and rural communities, recording work songs, reels, ballads, and blues. John Lomax was named "Honorary Consultant and Curator of the Archive of American Folk Song," which in 1928 had been created in the Library's Music Division. Alan became the Archive's "Assistant in Charge" in 1937, and he continued to make field trips and supply recordings to the Library until 1942. The Lomaxes recorded such legendary musicians as Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, Vera Ward Hall, McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield, Aunt Molly Jackson, Son House, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Texas Gladden, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, and Woody Guthrie. Other members of the family — Ruby Terrill Lomax, Bess Lomax Hawes, and John A. Lomax, Jr. — took part in some of these field trips and have, over time, added their own work to the archive.